5.5 hr
Overview
The Gorton Creek Trail, named after a 19th century homesteader, takes you from Herman Camp to the top of the Columbia River Gorge on Waucoma Ridge. It passes close to Rainy Lake, an excellent overnight camp spot for backpackers although it can be busy on summer weekends with visitors who walk in the quarter mile from the Rainy Lake Trailhead. Features of note along the trail are the stunning viewpoint from Indian Point, the now obliterated Deadwood Camp, and a short diversion to the high point of the hike at Green Point Mountain. Much of the lower half of the hike wends through the 2017 Eagle Creek Burn, and damage is greater above Deadwood Camp, where the trail disappears in a couple of spots. Above 3,400 feet, you're only going to see small ground fire effects from the burn as you cross a series of talus slopes overgrown with lush vegetation at the headwaters of Gorton Creek. Above the junction with the Nick Eaton Trail, you'll make a short ascent to the broad sloping plateau on the western flank of Green Point Mountain and then leave the Gorton Creek Trail to drop to the bowl that holds Rainy Lake. The trail drops from the Herman Creek Trailhead, but then switchbacks up twice before traversing. There are two more switchbacks in shady big-leaf maple, hemlock, Douglas-fir woods. The trail reaches the powerline corridor and crosses it, heading up to the right to reenter the woods. Here, you'll begin to see the effects of the 2017 Eagle Creek Fire, with the understory burned away but slowly recovering and the conifer canopy mostly intact. The path winds through an area of large, moss-covered boulders, and then passes an old forest track leading off the left. (This track drops down to Herman Creek Road.) Pass around the nose of a ridge, switchback twice, and traverse up to the junction with the Herman Bridge Trail #406E, 0.6 miles from the trailhead. Keep up on the main trail to switchback and then reach a bend in an old forest road. Stay right and head up the road, which levels in Douglas-fir, hemlock, and mapl
Trail Stats
0.0 km
1655 m
1443 m
0 m
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